U.S. states keep passing age-verification laws that sound reasonable until you read the fine print. Colorado, for example, wants operating systems to broadcast age data to every app you install, and California has already passed a similar bill.
As governments push age checks deeper into apps and operating systems, what once sounded like a safety measure is starting to feel a lot like surveillance.
Sourav Rudra
And it’s not just happening in the U.S. Reports suggest Brazil is also moving toward similar regulations. While this model may fit ecosystems like Apple and Microsoft, where operating systems are tightly tied to online accounts, the Linux world works very differently. Yet developers from projects like Fedora and Ubuntu are already discussing how such requirements might affect Linux.
We’ll be keeping close eye on how this evolves. Stay tuned.
Here are other highlights of this edition of FOSS Weekly:
- Longer support for certain Linux kernels.
- systemd troubleshooting tools
- Xfce customization.
- Microsoft hates Microslop.
- LibreOffice quick tip.
- A new consortium to unify the Arm software ecosystem.
- And other Linux news, tips, and, of course, memes!
AI coding assistants write code fast but do they pick safe dependencies? This is where Sonatype Guide comes in. It connects tools like Cursor, Copilot, and Claude Code to real-time open source intelligence via MCP, so vulnerable packages get flagged before they land in the open source project. Try it here.
📰 Linux and Open Source News
The web's most popular UI library has outgrown Meta's ownership. React is now part of the Linux Foundation with neutral governance and eight platinum members on board. Technical decisions are independent from the board, of course.
Arm software got too complex for any one company to handle alone. CoreCollective just launched to fix that fragmentation problem. Free membership for anyone building on Arm. AMD, Google, Microsoft and Red Hat are already in.
LTS kernel support windows just got extended after being cut to two years back in 2023. Linux 6.6 and 6.12 now get four-years of support instead. Greg Kroah-Hartman updated the schedule after discussions with companies and maintainers.
AI's RAM appetite just killed another hardware project. Orange Pi and Manjaro spent two years building a Linux gaming handheld, cleared regulatory approvals, and got everything ready to ship. Now it's sitting on ice because DDR5 chip prices are absurd.
Motorola just partnered with the GrapheneOS Foundation, and it was announced at MWC 2026. The two plan to collaborate on research, software improvements, and new security features in the coming months. If you did not know already, Graphene is an Android distribution that ditches Google's data collection layer entirely and has long been the go-to for anyone serious about privacy.
And a funny thing happened this week when Microsoft locked down its Discord server because people kept on calling it Microslop.
🧠 What We’re Thinking About
Few Linux distributions attract as much criticism as Ubuntu. From Snap complaints to Canonical decisions, the internet seems to have a long list of reasons to dislike it. But Ubuntu may not deserve nearly as much hate as it gets.
Roland Taylor
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🧮 Linux Tips, Tutorials, and Learnings
When stuff breaks on Linux, systemd already knows what happened. Systemctl shows which services crashed, journalctl has the error messages, and systemd-analyze tells you what's hogging boot time. Coredumpctl keeps snapshots of apps that died completely.
Got an old PC or Raspberry Pi collecting dust? Batocera, Lakka, and RetroPie turn them into plug-and-play retro consoles via USB or SD card.
A quick tip if you love to use LibreOffice. If a document has way too many images and you have to save multiple or all images from it, save it as an HTML document in a new folder. You'll get all the images from the document. Pretty neat 😄
By the way, we are working on a "Linux Mint Starter Pack" series for beginners. I'll share with you when it is done. In the mean time, you can get familiar with the Linux command line.
👷 AI, Homelab and Hardware Corner
Tired of feeding your photos to Google's AI? PhotoPrism runs locally on Docker, handles face recognition and tagging on your hardware.
Bhuwan Mishra
✨ Apps and Projects Highlights
A Czech-based dev built a data center sim where you rack servers and run cables. No native Linux support but works with some FPS issues
Sourav Rudra
📽️ Videos for You
Xfce can be customized to look (more) beautiful. This video shows how:
💡 Quick Handy Tip
Brave browser allows you to set a shortcut to copy the URL of the current tab. For this, go to Brave Settings -> System -> Shortcuts. Here, search for Copy URL and add a keybind to it.
In the screenshot above, CTRL+SHIFT+C is added as the shortcut. This overwrites the default inspect function, which it was mapped to earlier. So tread with caution and try to add a non-conflicting shortcut.
If your browser does not support this, you can use CTRL+L to access the address bar and then CTRL+C to copy the URL of the current tab.
📚 Don't Miss! Linux eBook bundle
Humble Bundle has brought back the "Linux for Seasoned Admins" ebook bundle offer (partner link). From the classic Linux Pocket Guide and my favorite, Efficient Linux at the Command Line, the bundle also has ebooks on Docker, Ansible, Kubernetes and other devops aspects of Linux.
And your purchase also supports the Code for America initiative.
🎋 Fun in the FOSSverse
Can you beat this crossword and become the Daemon Hunter?
Abhishek Prakash
🤣 Meme of the Week: The pain is real. 🥲
🗓️ Tech Trivia: On March 1, 1960, the first LISP Programmer's Manual was released by John McCarthy's group at MIT. McCarthy had built a recursive, symbolic language that would go on to become the foundation of AI programming and outlast nearly every other high-level language of its era.
🧑🤝🧑 From the Community: FOSSers are talking about the upcoming secure boot changes, and how it might affect those on Linux.
